Complete Peace
by wordpineapple19
Summary: "You like your laptop more than me." Or Percy is grumpy, and Annabeth loves him anyways. One-shot. Post TLO.
1. Chapter 1

"Put the water back in the glass, Percy."

"I don't know what you're talking about." His face is so nonchalant that I might believe him. Except he's literally the only one in the vicinity that has the power to manipulate water.

I take my eyes off my laptop screen and look at the floating sphere of clear liquid that hovers right above the glass it was originally in.

"You're being a child." I stare at him, unimpressed. He shrugs.

"Who says that I'm the one doing it?"

I quirk an eyebrow. _Really?_

He sighs and as he does it, the water falls back into the cup as a steady stream.

"Thank you."

I hunch forward again and continue to type away. Right now, we're in the Poseidon cabin. Strangely enough, it's one of my favorite places. It's a little messy, courtesy of Percy, but that just adds character. The lights are always dim and the fountain sounds so soothing. The oceanic color scheme makes everything so tranquil. There are pictures thumbtacked on the wall of all of our friends. The comforter on his bed is ridiculously comfortable. The list goes on. But above all, everything smells like Percy. Briny saltwater, sunshine, and something distinctly him. That alone is enough to bring me complete peace.

Well, not _complete_ peace.

Percy lets out another groan and his head falls against the wall over and over again, landing in a series of thuds. Once again, my focus turns back to the complete five year old that is perched on the spot next to me on his bed.

I lean back back against the wall and cross my arms. My eyes flit back and forth across his face.

"What's going on over there?" I ask. I take time to observe the disgruntled expression on his face.

"Nothing." He refuses to turn his glare on me, and instead picks at a nonexistent thread on his green shirt. Man, that shirt brings out his eyes.

Back to the task at hand.

"Whatever. What's wrong with you, Mr. Grumpy."

"I'm not Mr. Grumpy." He mumbles and I laugh. There's something so surreal about seeing the guy with the Curse of Achilles pouting. I love it. It's a firm reminder that after everything, he's still my Percy.

"Yes you are. What's up?" He turns away.

I bring up a finger and poke his cheek. He doesn't budge. I poke his neck. He cracks a smile. I poke the side of his nose and finally he bites his bottom lip and chuckles.

"Are you ready to talk now?"

His glare returns and he looks across the room. "You like your laptop more than me." He says it like it leaves a bitter taste on his tongue.

The laugh that escapes my lips is well justified.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're always working now. I feel like we never hang out." The tone of his voice isn't accusatory. It's just matter-of-fact.

I place my laptop on the floor, and reach over to take his hand. My free hand has a mind of its own and I began to trace his arm with my fingers. Somehow, he manages to feel so strong yet so soft. Invincible, but fragile. A wave of contentment floods my heart.

"We're hanging out right now." I state softly.

He raises his eyebrows. "When I said ' _hey you want to come hang with me in my cabin'_ I didn't mean ' _hey you want to come look over building designs while I perish slowly of boredom beside you'."_

I laugh loudly and lean my head on his shoulder. He lays his head on top of mine.

"Damn. I guess we were on different pages." I joke. He simply scoffs. I guess I have been pretty preoccupied. When I wasn't away overseeing construction, I had my face buried in a laptop. Now that it's brought to my attention, I realize how little quality time I've spent with Percy. Suddenly, hit hits me how much I miss him.

"I'm sorry, Percy. But, I mean, rebuilding Olympus takes time. There's so much to do, and everybody wants it done so fast. I wasn't purposely trying to neglect you."

I feel his head shake. "No, you don't have to apologize. I'm just whining." His tone turns serious. "I think…it has more to do with the after effect of the war than you." he admits.

My hand tightens around his and I nod for him to continue.

"It just still seems so fresh. Like every now and then I feel like it's not really over. Or I just think about all the close calls." He takes a death breath and something in my heart cracks. "I know that everybody is looking at me. For different reasons. They want to know the next move, or how I'll hold up against everything. But I don't want to be worried about that. I just want to be grateful." He lifts his head and the intensity of his green eyes damn near incinerates me. "I want to be grateful that you're sitting next to me. I guess I just want to spend every moment with you that I could've lost."

For once in my life, I'm rendered speechless.

He clears his throat and pinches my nose.

"Or maybe I want you all to myself, and nobody seems to have gotten the memo." His goofiness is genuine, but the look in his eyes tells me it's forced.

I turn completely sideways and place both of my legs in his lap. I try to dig through my cluttered brain to find a suitable reply for the remarkable man beside me. Everybody tells me that I never shut up, but when it actually counts, I come up blank. But then I think about it. This is Percy. He doesn't value big words or drawn out explanations. Those types of things don't matter to him like they matter to others. Percy cares more for the point you're trying to make, rather than how you make it. He wasn't looking for a grand, poetic reply. He just wanted to confide in me. He wanted me to know how he felt. And suddenly, my reply is simple.

"I love you, Seaweed Brain." It speaks all of the _I'm here's_ and _it's okays_ better than any well crafted statement could have.

I know that I said the right thing when a certain warmth bleeds through the glaze of his eyes.

"I love you more, Wise Girl."

We sit in serene silence for a while

An idea pops into my head, and I gasp. Percy flinches and gives me a weird look. "What if you came with me? I'm going to Olympus tomorrow to see how things are going. You can come!"

He rolls his eyes. "Oh yeah. I'm sure your mother would _love_ that."

"She'll be fine. Please? I'm trying to make an effort to alleviate your attention deprivation." He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. I slam my fist into his arm and he goes back to pouting.

Finally he gives in. "Fine. I want to see what you've come up with so far anyway. I bet it's brilliant."

His smile melts my entire being.

"Thank you, Perce."

He leans forehead on mine and his eyes take on a mischievous glint. "Now that that's settled, I'm feeling deprived. Alleviate me?"

I shake my head and find myself laughing again. I close the gap.

 _What an idiot_.

::

 **My dudes, this has been stuck in my head for a week and I had to get it out before I went insane. I'm really happy wih this. It's post TLO and pre TLH.**

 **Please drop a review, they make me exceptionally happy. Stuff you liked. Stuff you didn't. Fav part. Least fav part. Or your favorite Percy Jackson book (that's a loaded question). Thanks for reading!**

 **p.s. If you haven't checked out my story Lethal with a Latte you should head over to my page and do that. You won't regret it. I think. Let's just say you won't.**

 **Gray:: John 3:16**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I realized that I hadn't put a disclaimer on this. So, you know, Riordan. All of it.**

 **This is a continuation of Complete Peace. I was so honored by the exceptional feedback, and I thought you guys might enjoy a second part. This is Annabeth showing Percy her work as mentioned in the first part.**

 **So, a few quick thank yous because you guys didn't have to take the time to review but you did and it gave my heart the warm fuzzies:**

 **Ravenclawdiadem16** : I too, am an absolute sucker for fluff. I'm so glad you enjoyed!

 **solieabouteverything** : Oh my goodness, thank you so much!

 **AnnaUnicorn** : First off, love the username. Second, thank you!

 **spideyscoming** : Thank you! I'm so happy you liked it!

 **legolasgreenleaf15** : I agree, I can totally see them doing this. Thank you for reading and I'm so happy you enjoyed!

 **allen r** : Thank you so much for reading, and I'm so happy you liked it!

 **BAM! There we go. Enjoy!**

"Holy shit, Annabeth." Percy breathes. The look on his face is enough to make me feel something between excitement and anxiousness. His eyes dart in every direction like he can't seem to focus on anything for more than a second.

I admit, the sight before us is pretty impressive. Although it's not finished, Olympus is rising from the ashes with a vengeance. I knew the moment I started designing, I wanted everything to be bigger and better. More regal and dominant.

I needed them to be more than buildings and statues. I needed them to be statements. Something along the lines of _yeah you brought us to our knees, but only so we could show you how fast we could get back up._ This wasn't just about fixing a home. It was about fixing a morale.

Sparkling white, marble columns tower over the streets. They're hand-carved with meticulous detail. Grandiose arches stretch from pillar to pillar. Elegant swirls and curves tattoo walls and come together to form meticulous abstract. Some designs are less random, and instead recount centuries worth trial and triumph. Our own stories etch themselves onto the granite, and I can't decide if that's a good thing or not. Massive fountains emerge at every corner spraying crystal blue water. I watch as Percy drags his hand through one.

The light hits the back of the buildings in such a way, that they appear to be glowing in the skyline. From our spot at the bottom of the hill, it looks timeless. Limitless. Unreachable.

"It's not quite done yet, though we have made major progress." I settle on the generic response I have for people who are seeing it for the first time. I should know by now that generic doesn't satisfy Percy. But he doesn't say anything. He just stares ahead with wide eyes and lips slightly parted.

"Okay, now is the part where you say something besides 'holy shit' because you're making me nervous." I twist the tail of my bright, orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. Why am I so nervous? It's just Percy. Just Percy, who's opinion means everything in the entirety of the universe to me.

He suddenly shakes his head and his eyes seem to focus. He turns to me. For a second he just looks at me, and when he finally opens his mouth, he chokes on air. I tilt my head away from him and furrow my eyes.

"No, no. I'm sorry. I'm just-I don't know-overwhelmed." Everything he says makes me more and more concerned.

"Is that all you have for me or…?"

"Annabeth, you're over analyzing again. I mean, look at this." He spreads his arms out and turns in a complete circle. "There's so much to take in. I-I knew you were amazing. But this is…this is beyond extraordinary. It's even more breathtaking than before. This is…holy shit."

Now that I can breath properly, I chuckled good heartedly. "You have a real eloquent way of speaking, you know that?"

He doesn't acknowledge my sarcastic remark, which tells me just how taken aback he is by the scene. "How did you manage to top one of the most spectaculacular places in existence?"

My face goes bright red, but I don't even bother to hide it. "I didn't realize I had." I shrug.

"Trust me when I say this, you did. There's just so much passion in everything. How in Hades did you make a building look passionate?" He fixes me with a crazy look and it takes a few minutes to compose myself from the laughter.

"I don't know you weirdo. I guess it's just because this _is_ my passion." My eyes do a slow sweep of the view. I've been spending a large amount of my time here for the past couple of weeks, but I've been paying all of my attention on implementing the plans rather than appreciating them. Standing here with Percy while he sings my praises, I allow myself the time.

And surprisingly, Percy Jackson is absolutely right. This is _breathtaking_.

I've always been told that pride is my fatal flaw, but the feeling that courses through my veins right now is far from fatal. I feel irrevocably alive.

Seeing everything I've worked so hard on, seeing every hour I spent slaving over these plans, being made into something tangible is almost too much. I exhale in accomplishment. Tears prick my eyes and I feel myself floating.

I'm lifted even higher as strong arms band around my waist from behind. Percy turns me in his grasp and pulls me closer to his body. His sea green eyes hold my gray ones captive.

"I am so proud of you, Annabeth Chase." The sincerity in his voice sucks the breath from my lungs and I feel light headed. Suddenly I'm hyper aware of his heart pounding against my open palm and the way his nose brushes against my own. "It's crazy. One second I think that I have a grasp on just how extraordinary you are, then I see something like this and I realize how stupid I was to even think something like that could be measured."

Speechless.

Once again, I can't string together a coherent response. It seems that only Percy is capable of doing this to me.

So I do the next best thing and press my lips to his. His hand cradles the back of my neck and the sigh he lets out fills me with unadulterated love and adoration. And when his finger tips brush under the hem of my shirt, I have a realization of my own.

Two passions are better than one.

 **Fin. So, I was very happy with this but let me know what you thought. Stuff you liked, stuff you didn't. You know, the whole shabang.**

 **It means the world to me that you read this! Please review because they make my life.**

 **Gray:: John 3:16**


End file.
